Here at the offices of the ShaqFu Radio blog, we’re ready to buy tickets to this pay-per-view, if and when it comes along. New York Knicks veteran star Charles Oakley recently announced he’d like to set up a celebrity boxing match. He’s ready to take on BOTH Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley! Not at the same time, of course…
Plenty of players from years gone by (especially back to the 80s and 90s), have talked about how (in their opinions, anyway) the NBA of today is a “soft” league. It’s probably true – games in the past were much more physical than today’s contests. Of course a lot of that has to do with rule changes in recent years and the way games are officiated.
And yes, it seems that sometimes, The games in the 80s and 90s were of a much more physical nature, unlike today. As far as officiating goes, it seems that in the past, players were able to get away with a lot more than they are today.
What do you think? Is that a good thing or not? Of course if you’re a relatively new NBA fan, you may not have seen any of those old-school games. Maybe on some YouTube replay, or ESPN Classic. Either way, we love the game.
Now here comes Oakley. During a recent appearance on the Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay Podcast, Oakley put it out there: he’d like to set up a boxing match that would feature him taking on BOTH Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley… separately, for a celebrity fund-raising matchup.
Any particular order, Mr. Oakley? No doubt – the former Knicks All-Star didn’t hesitate in saying it would be our man Shaq first into the ring.
Oakley admitted that he didn’t have Shaq’s size…who does? Still, he seemed confident about being the faster of the two. Oakley has some boxing experience, but Shaq has had some martial arts training himself.
Oakley: “I know he’s (Shaq) about 75 pounds heavy. I’ll take him. I got pretty good hands. I’m gonna be moving though, so. But it’ll be fun, I would definitely do that with the “NBA x” player. I still got the little bobby weave in me.”
So far, no reaction from Shaq or Sir Charles. All three former players had their day back when the league was a lot more physical than it is now. Of course Shaq pretty much defined what “physical play” was like during his era. Sir Charles was no pushover, either.
Like we said, we’re ready to buy the pay-per-view tickets right now. Let’s see if anything comes of the offer, or if it was all just blowin’ smoke.